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Kimi Antonelli says there is still âa long wayâ to go before he reaches the level of recent title winners Max Verstappen and Lando Norris. Antonelli said: "I think there's still a long way before I reach their level, the two drivers next to me. So, I feel like I'm doing a great job, but there's still a long way to reach their level. So, still lots of work to do."
Mercedes deputy team principal Bradley Lord says the team does not want to use team orders, insisting its priority is the Constructors' Championship even though Andrea Kimi Antonelli leads the Drivers' Championship. Lord said: "The simple principle is, if a Mercedes can win the race, a Mercedes must win the race, and that's what comes first. The team comes first, and the Constructors' Championship is the team's primary focus and primary objective."
Honda Racing Corporation president Koji Watanabe warned Aston Martinâs improved performance at the Hungarian Grand Prix was helped by the Hungaroring suiting the car. Watanabe said: "It's partly down to the characteristics of the circuit."
Circuit of the Americas has teased a âmajorâ collaboration with Silverstone in a cryptic social media post saying the two venues will âjoin forcesâ. The Austin circuit said more details will be announced on Wednesday, 5 August, but did not clarify what the tie-in will involve.
McLaren technical director Mark Temple says Formula 1âs new power units have made the âbiggest headlinesâ so far this season, and admits the team has taken longer than it wanted to get its race-weekend preparation processes where it wants them. Temple said: "The power unit, obviously, made the biggest headlines. We knew that was going to be difficult to manage but also that there would be a lot of performance opportunity from it, and that it would have quite a big impact on the way we go racing. It's taken us longer to get our processes â the way we prepare for each event â into the state we would wish them to be."
Carlos Sainz says Williams are âmore far away from the topâ than the team thought they were at the end of 2025, describing the gap as âan eye-openerâ during a difficult 2026 so far. Sainz said: "But, time has proven to me that it's been obviously the opposite or the other way round, and that as a team we are more far away from the top than what we thought we were at the end of '25, so it's been definitely a character-building year for the whole team. Bit of an eye-opener in terms of how much work there is to do still, if we even want to consider fighting with a top team in the future."
Oliver Bearman says seeing former junior rivals Kimi Antonelli and Isack Hadjar performing at the front in Formula 1 gives him âa huge amount of confidenceâ that he can do the same when he has the car for it. Bearman said: "I take a huge amount of confidence in that, and that's probably why I can sleep well at night. Knowing that Kimi, even Isack, you know, these are guys who are performing incredibly well in cars that are also very fast. It proves to me that I have what it takes because I've raced these guys throughout my junior career and have stacked up positively against them. That tells me that it's just a matter of time."
Nikola Tsolov says he has âno doubtâ he will get an opportunity in Formula 1 if he keeps performing in Formula 2, although he has not been told anything yet about his future. Tsolov said: "Nothing yet, unfortunately. But it's still early days. We need to get through the summer break. I need to keep doing what I'm doing; obviously, I have no doubt that if everything goes the same way, I surely will get an opportunity one day."
The FIA has confirmed the start time for this yearâs Bahrain Grand Prix, which is being held at Sepang on 2-4 October 2026 after the original Sakhir event was cancelled in March due to the conflict in the Middle East. The race will start at 3pm local time on Sunday 4 October (8am in the UK and Ireland).
Audi racing director Allan McNish says the team has been quicker and more consistent in qualifying than he expected during its debut 2026 Formula 1 season. McNish said: "In terms of car performance, I think we're better in qualifying than I expected. I didn't think we would be quite so quick and consistently quick, and we are able to deal with that. We need to make a step forward again there."
Mercedes deputy team principal Bradley Lord said Kimi Antonelliâs turnaround in form was sparked by a âresetâ around Baku in 2025, which helped him improve his preparation and work more closely with his engineer and the team. Bradley Lord said: "I think he's found the method that worked for him in order to get the most from the team, understand the effort that is needed ahead of the weekend in order to arrive prepared, because track time is such a scarce and valuable commodity. So it was a really useful reset around sort of Baku time [in 2025] for him to really double down, redouble his efforts with Bono [race engineer Pete Bonnington], with the rest of the team around him, with the regularity of the visits to the sim and the intensity and depth of the work there."
Former Aston Martin team principal Otmar Szafnauer says the roots of the teamâs current Formula 1 struggles go back five years, blaming a push for success âtoo quicklyâ that led to too much personnel turnover. Szafnauer said: "You've got to go back five years. For me, the mess comes from wanting success too quickly in Formula 1. And wanting success too quickly and not being patient means you get personnel turnover too quickly. And the most successful teams are the stable ones."
Andrea Stella says McLaren will not race its rotating rear-wing concept until an as-yet unspecified point in the future, describing it as a complicated project that the team has wanted to validate with track data. Stella said: "I have to say it's been a complicated project. We knew it was going to be a complex project, so I have to say that our engineering department has delivered this project in a way that looks well-behaved. All this I have to say has been pretty consistent with expectation, so it's been a positive sign off of this concept and we look forward now to introducing this concept at some future events."
Toto Wolff says Mercedes must be strategic about when it introduces upgrades in the second half of the season because of the restrictions of the cost cap. Wolff said: "We need to be really strategic about when to bring the upgrades. When do we think they will have the biggest impact on performance? Rather than just throwing it in at every grand prix like in the past, you cannot do this so you will have to eventually put an upgrade in and probably you leapfrog a little with the others and then it flattens out and the other ones coming stronger. So we're bringing upgrades; we're closely monitoring how much we can bring, and at the moment, cost cap wise, we're in a good spot."
Formula 1 president Stefano Domenicali says contingency plans are already in place for the 2027 calendar if the conflict in the Middle East continues into next year, with F1 still aiming to run 24 races. He said a ânormal planâ will be announced in the autumn, but added: âIn case the situation in the Middle East is not solved, we have options, different plans [for 2027]⌠we have different plans with different options already in place.â
Aston Martin performance director Tom McCullough is set to leave the organisation at the end of 2026, PlanetF1.com reports. McCullough first joined the Silverstone team in 2014 during its Force India era and moved into senior leadership in 2018, before being shifted away from the F1 operation in Andy Cowellâs 2025 management reshuffle to work on Aston Martin Performance Technologies projects in other categories.
Liam Lawson says Racing Bullsâ development programme is âby far the strongestâ he has seen at the team, with the upgrades it has brought to its VCARB 03 working as expected on track. Lawson said: "On the development side, by far the strongest. So far, I think everything we've been bringing has been working very, very well. And that's something that is hard in Formula 1. Obviously, you have upgrades that are run through simulations and theoretically can be better, but they're not always exactly what they seem."
Toto Wolff says Mercedes have been âbittenâ by reliability problems in the first half of the 2026 Formula 1 season, costing the team points and allowing Ferrari to take advantage. Wolff said: "We were definitely bitten by reliability. We had three or four DNFs, so we probably lost 70-80 points due to non-finishes against our direct competitor, Ferrari. But we lost it, and obviously everybody's catching up, so there were more complicated grands prix. Actually, the last two wins of Ferrari are wins because we lost it; unlucky with the safety car [in Barcelona], Kimi retiring [finishing outside the points due to reliability issues] in Silverstone."
Oscar Piastri says his results this season have not always shown how much he feels he has learned and improved as a driver. Piastri said: "I think the good results have been one thing, but I feel like I've also learned a lot about how I can improve myself as a driver, even if the results don't always show it."
McLaren driver Oscar Piastri says driving Fernando Alonsoâs 2007 car and Lewis Hamiltonâs 2008 car left him with âa pretty big smileâ and a sense of nostalgia for the cars he grew up watching. Piastri said: "I've driven Fernando's 2007 car, and I was lucky enough to drive Lewis's 2008 car earlier this year. The cars being so light and the noise they make, especially from that time, is pretty incredible. But when you've grown up watching that on TV and listening to it, there's definitely that element of nostalgia as well. Driving cars from 2007 and 2008, I had a pretty big smile on my face when I got out."
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